Gary Vaynerchuk admits he was terrible at firing people. He kept an employee named Sam for a year and a half while planning to let him go, then fired him abruptly with no warning. He blames his lack of candor for creating fear and uncertainty on his teams.
I wasn't a bad firer. I was an all-time atrocious firer, right? I— and I didn't see it. By far the biggest problem the three of us have is something we can't see. I used to think of it as my ultimate strength. It led to so much good, but it actually ended up leading to the worst of the worst. I've been really managing people since I was 18 years old. I used to think my greatest strength was eliminating fear. Like, I can take care of everything. I got it. And I had this day in my early 40s. I thought everybody was rolling with me with lack of fear, but that many in my company were scared because they didn't know where they stood with me because I was unable to do candor. And on Friday I was like, Sammy, have the best weekend, my guy. You're working for me for 3 years. Like, all right, Gary, like, you too. And then like Monday I'd be like, Sam, need to talk to you in my office real quick. Hey, so, you know, it's gonna be your last day. And by the way, I've been sitting on this for a year and a half, right? Back to your point, right? And today's your last day. And you're like, like, you've never said anything. Like, I And then I would blame you. I'd be like, Sam, you're so delusional. Then I would talk to Sean and be like, Sean, could you believe Sam? Everyone in the company knows Sam sucked for the last 18 months. I was giving him a gift for the last year of charity and he's mad at me? I was coming up with that excuse, so my candor was at a zero. I knew I had to be accountable. I'm like, why are these people, who are all lovely people, who have really nice careers on the equity of their time with me, why are they shitting on me? And it was all, and I knew it, 'cause I just looked at the 8 names and I was like, these were all sloppy exits. All of 'em.
